Block 1 : Key news
 
Coinbase launches battle against SEC
 
Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange platform, has filed a lawsuit against the US securities regulator (SEC) seeking regulatory clarity on digital assets. The platform wants to force the SEC to respond to its petition from last July, calling for clearer rules for the industry. The SEC, headed by Gary Gensler, has been criticized for regulatory vagueness in the sector, while at the same time sanctioning many players, including Kraken and Paxos.
 
Binance will not save Voyager Digital
 
Binance.US has cancelled the agreement to buy the assets of Voyager Digital, a failed cryptocurrency exchange. As a reminder, Voyager Digital had suspended withdrawals last July following a default by Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US. Under the agreement, Voyager's frozen customer assets were supposed to be transferred to Binance.US. However, following the cancellation of this agreement, the assets should now be redistributed directly to customers.
 
Visa continues its expansion into the cryptosphere
 
Visa confirms its commitment to developing products and services around stablecoins and is looking for software engineers familiar with the Ethereum ecosystem. Cuy Sheffield, head of the company's crypto department, explained on Twitter that Visa wants to create a bridge between fiat currencies and stablecoins, particularly to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology. 
 
Michelin accelerates into Web3
 
Michelin is venturing into Web3 with the sale of 5,000 NFTs, which feature the iconic Michelin Man, under the name "Michelin 3xplorer Club". In collaboration with Bulldog.xyz, this collection will offer NFT holders exclusive experiences related to Michelin's activities. The launch date and unit price are still unknown, but the mint is expected to take place around June 15. The experiences on offer include VIP events at Michelin Motorsport and star ceremonies. The initiative aims to connect the brand with its community, including those who are not familiar with Web3.

Block 2: Cryptic Analysis of the Week
 
Leading philosophers of the effective altruism movement, which claims to define how best to positively impact the world, were alerted back in 2018 to Sam Bankman-Fried's deceptive behavior and inappropriate relationships with numerous subordinates, according to a report in Time. However, instead of addressing the whistleblowers' concerns, the movement's top brass reportedly threatened those who warned that Bankman-Fried, who claims to be a member of effective altruism, was not what he seemed.
 
Despite formal efforts by the staff of Alameda Research - SBF's shadowy hedge fund - to dismiss Bankman-Fried at the time, people such as Oxford professor William McCaskill continued to publicly support the FTX founder as he engineered one of the biggest financial frauds in history. 
 
In April 2018, four of Alameda's top managers convened a meeting to propose that Bankman-Fried leave the hedge fund due to already significant concerns about his disregard for fundamental business processes and accounting.
 
Documents from the meeting describe Bankman-Fried as exhibiting "gross negligence", "lack of ethics" and "misrepresentation of figures". Time reports that Bankman-Fried reneged on an agreement to share the Alameda property and unlawfully registered as sole owner. Instead of responding to the allegations against Bankman-Fried, McCaskill allegedly "essentially threatened" those who raised questions, according to Naia Bouscal, a former software engineer at Alameda.
 
McCaskill was informed of Bankman-Fried's behaviour, as were Nick Beckstead, a moral philosopher aligned with effective altruism, and Holden Karnofsky, co-CEO of the fundraising platform OpenPhilanthropy, focused on effective altruism.
 
Because McCaskill wielded considerable power within the effective altruism movement and many Alameda employees were also part of the movement, his opposition deterred and hindered those within Alameda who tried to hold Bankman-Fried accountable from the beginning. 
 
Bankman-Fried is said to have used his ties to McCaskill as leverage within Alameda. One person described to Time the behavior of Alameda's CEO at the time: "[Bankman-Fried] was like, 'I could destroy you. Will [McCaskill] and Holden [Karnofsky] would believe me over you. Nobody will believe you.
 
Partly due to McCaskill's defence, Bankman-Fried was not forced to resign after the April 2018 meeting. Instead, the four executives who initially raised concerns left, along with about half of Alameda's employees at the time.
 
McCaskill, Karnofsky and Beckstead appear to have played a direct and crucial role in enabling the FTX fraud - and they were handsomely rewarded by their protege. After FTX's meteoric growth from 2020 onwards, McCaskill benefited from a surge of interest generated by the allegedly effective altruistic billionaire, particularly in the form of donations, which he had spent years nurturing. Beckstead was appointed head of the FTX Future Fund, a fake non-profit organisation that helped build Bankman-Fried's positive image and attract more victims.
 
These revelations are damning for those involved and for the effective altruism movement as a whole. While they may not have been aware of the details of Bankman-Fried's misdeeds, they seem to have known that his alleged moral stance was a sham. The ideas put forward by McCaskill and his colleagues have long been criticized as a smokescreen for unscrupulous capitalists to distract attention from their greed. The actions of FTX have become a concrete example of this theoretical critique, exposing a deep corruption at the heart of the effective altruism movement.
 
Unfortunately, the FTX saga has demonstrated how rarely these issues are addressed at the highest levels of society, allowing the gangrene of greed and self-interest to spread unchecked, wreaking havoc on the lives of those who ultimately suffer.

Block 3 : Gainers & Losers

 

MarketScreener

Block 4 : Things to read:

SEC dissenter says crypto should be relaxed (Wired)

The Chinese metaverse is about work (Wired)

The US's flawed approach to digital assets (Project Syndicate)